The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Vehicle article carriers are used in a wide variety of applications to transport articles on various forms of vehicles such as cars, minivans, SUVs and sometimes on trucks. Such vehicle article carriers typically include a pair of support rails which are fixedly secured to an outer body surface of the vehicle parallel to one another, and parallel to a longitudinal axis of the vehicle. Often one or more cross bars are supported from the support rails. The cross bars allow various articles to be supported thereon above the roof of the vehicle.
Typically the support rails are formed from aluminum or another high strength metallic material, and often extend 4-6 feet in length. The cross rails are then secured by suitable fasteners, sometimes RIVNUT® style fasteners, to the roof of the vehicle. However, manufacturing the support rails from a metallic material such as aluminum can be relatively expensive. The metallic material is needed for strength purposes to adequately support the cross bars and the weight they can be anticipated to carry at virtually any point along the length of the cross bars. However, in many instances, a wide degree of adjustability of the cross bars is not needed. Often a standardized spacing of the cross bars is sufficient to meet the needs of most individuals.